“No. I keep to myself. I work as a nurse, and when I’m not working, I’m here. It doesn’t make sense.”
The female piped up, “What about you?” She jutted her chin out toward Harley.
His eyes widened a fraction. “I…uh…I’m not sure.”
Both officers looked at each other, then to me and back to Harley with sudden interest.
He proceeded to explain his situation, realization suddenly dawning on me too as I recalled my scattered thoughts at the precinct earlier.
Harley would have amassed enemies as a soldier. But being a ghost, how would anyone even be able to find him? If the police weren’t able to locate personal information about him, how would an enemy be able to? Unless of course that enemy had been the person to attack him in the first place and had been watching and waiting the whole time.
God. My life was spiraling downwards with no end in sight. Suddenly I felt as if I’d jumped into an episode of a crime show. What the hell had I gotten into by bringing Harley home? Nick had been right all along. We didn’t know the guy. It would appear he came with a lot of baggage, and to what extreme, I didn’t know.
“It may have been an unlucky, random event, but we’ll do a drive around the area and see if we notice anyone or anything suspicious. In the meantime, be alert, and if you discover anything at all, no matter how small, give us a call.” He handed Harley his card and walked through the apartment, eyeing the damage. “Anything missing?” he asked when he returned.
“I’m not sure yet. We haven’t checked. We called you guys right away.”
“Have a search through stuff and let us know.”
“Will do. Thank you.”
“We’ll do a quick dust for fingerprints in here.” He motioned around the room. “I doubt we’ll find any, but its protocol.”
“Can we begin cleaning up this mess? I asked.
“Yep. I can’t see why not. You got insurance?”
“Um, I’m not sure. I’ll have to check up on that.” Nick may have taken out insurance when we moved in, but I didn’t have any.
The policeman nodded, getting back to his task at hand. Harley grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway to my bedroom.
“You all right?” He dropped my arm and put both hands on my shoulders, piercing me with sympathetic eyes.
“I don’t know. I guess. I’m just glad you’re here.” A simple thought crossed my mind. If Harley hadn’t come home with me, none of this would have happened. I shook it off. It didn’t matter now. I needed to deal.
The next thing I knew, strong arms pulled me against an ample chest in a fierce hug. I didn’t want to move a muscle. Knowing Harley went into survival mode upon entering the apartment appeased me somewhat. Even if he couldn’t remember his training, I began to think, if it came down to it, he’d fight to protect me and himself.
“If the person who broke in has anything to do with my past, I’m so sorry they’ve followed me here. I should do us both a favor and leave, to keep you safe.”
I should have agreed with him, but knowing I’d be on my own carried a decent amount of fear. If the person came back looking for Harley, it would be disastrous without him.
“I’d rather wait until the suspect is apprehended. I won’t feel safe until then.”
His lips rested on the top of my head, his breath on my scalp. I inhaled his calming scent and burrowed into his chest.
“Then, I’m sleeping in here with you again. I’m not leaving you vulnerable. If the asshole comes back, I’d rest easier knowing you were near. I can’t protect you in another room.”
As much as having him sleeping in my bed a second time had me all sorts of anxious, it also relieved me to know I’d have the hulk of a man as a barrier to any intruders.
“Fine, but no funny business.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Angel.” Winking, he turned to inspect the damage to my room. “Let’s get this mess cleaned up.”
Once we had the mattress on the bed, clothes folded into drawers, and personal items replaced, I relaxed a little. Nothing had been taken so far, or nothing I noticed. Harley’s room didn’t have much in it to begin with, so straightening it up took only a minute. When we’d finished the bathroom, we headed back into the living room. The officers were finishing up, so we bid them farewell, locking the place up when they were out the door.
Reality began to set in as I gaped at the disaster my living room had become. My shoulders shook and the first tears fell. I’d never had anything like this happen before and it unsettled me more than I cared to let on.
Harley heard my sniffing and walked over to me, taking my hand and dragging me into the kitchen, which was the only room relatively unscathed. He sat me down at the kitchen table. “Coffee?”
Nodding, unable to speak, I watched him set to work, wondering how he coped so well.
Allowing myself a couple of minutes to settle, I asked, “What’s your take on what happened? Do you think it’s linked to the attempt on your life?”
He had his back to me, but I didn’t miss the buckling of his back muscles as he fought to answer my question. Perhaps he didn’t need to. His body language spoke volumes.
“It would appear so. Who else could it be? It’s not like you’ve made any enemies.”
Pausing with both hands gripping the edge of the counter, I watched his head sag down in defeat. “Have you got somewhere else you could stay for a while?”
“What? No. This is my home. Why should I leave?”
Lifting his head and spinning to face me, his startling eyes had lost some of their luster. “I just think you’d be safer away from here.”
“Do you think they’ll come back?”
“It’s hard to say. I’m not sure what they were looking for. If they were after me, why not wait until I’m actually here? Why trash the place?”
“To send a message. They want you to know they’ve found you again.”
“This is all so screwed up.”
I clung to the mug of steaming coffee he handed me. We had a job ahead of us out in the living room…to clean up smashed glass and put right the shambles. We both looked like we needed the hit of caffeine to revive us as we chugged it down.
“I’m not sending you out on the street where you’re an open target. I’ll get an alarm fitted.”
Joining me at the table with his own mug, we eyed each other. “That might be a good idea. I’ll take you to and from work until we get this guy or guys.”
My eyes dilated. “You remember how to drive?”
“Just because I can’t remember my past, Mac, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do stuff. Of course I remember how to drive.”
I wasn’t sure how the whole amnesia thing worked. I hadn’t had to deal with any other patients in a similar situation.
The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon we spent, putting back the jigsaw pieces of my apartment, making it look halfway decent again. I’d need to replace a couple of pictures, and we’d thrown out a lamp, but apart from that, most of the mess had been fixable.
The lock on the door remained intact, so whoever had broken in had picked it. I’d need to see about getting a deadbolt fitted too.
All the times I’d been home alone while Nick worked, I’d never worried about my safety. It scared me how easy it had been to break in.
For dinner I fixed us a stir-fry with chicken and cashews, which Harley devoured.
“You’re a great cook! This is delicious!” he murmured with a mouth full of food.
Laughing at his gluttony, I couldn’t help but like cooking for someone and have them eat with me. It didn’t happen often.
For myself, I often made easy meals and didn’t take the time to fuss. To have him enjoy it thrilled me.
“Thank you. I actually like to cook. I just haven’t done too much of it in the past couple of years. You tend to slap together something basic when eating on your own.”
“Well, if you keep feeding me food like this, I w
on’t be in a hurry to leave.” His dark orbs swam with regret, as if those very words had him wishing at some point he didn’t have to. Once we found out about his life though, chances were someone would be waiting for him to return home.
Who would protect me if the criminal who’d broken into the apartment hadn’t been caught by then?
A level of unease sat low in my belly and would remain there until the threat was removed.
Perhaps my thoughts became words written on my face, because Harley asked, “Will you be okay on your own when I eventually go? I mean, if you don’t get back with Nick?”
Running my finger around the cup rim absentmindedly, I pondered that question. I’d practically lived the last two years alone, but in my mind, I still knew Nick lived with me. Now, his belongings were scattered around the place, and while some of his items still remained, his lingering presence had vanished.
“I could eventually move in with a friend.” My voice faded out on the last line.
“But?”
Wasn’t there always a but? I liked this apartment and its proximity to work. The fact it didn’t have stairs worked in my favor. Plus, my work friends were on changeable hours like me. Our shifts altered every couple of weeks, so I’d end up living with someone who would be sleeping through the day fifty percent of the time and vice-versa. I may as well stay on my own and get used to it.
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”
Finishing his last forkful, having eaten every scrap of dinner I’d served him, my ego sang with joy that he loved it. To see an empty plate after cooking made my inner chef feel worthy. I didn’t consider myself a whiz in the kitchen, but I knew the basics.
Harley collected his plate and took mine, which I’d pushed away, leaving a small portion. He proceeded to load the dishwasher, which added to my growing list of likes about my John Doe.
Remembering I had a bottle of wine in the fridge, and even though we’d both only just finished our coffees, I offered, “Wine and movies?”
Turning to shoot me a blinding smile that had my libido kick into overdrive, his eyes folded at the corners. “Sounds perfect.”
And so we got comfortable on the couch while Harley let me choose the first movie.
“You seriously want to watch Fast and Furious 7?” His question held both mirth and awe.
“I like the movies. Why? What were you expecting me to choose? Pretty Woman?”
“Well, yeah. You look like a Pretty Woman kind of girl.”
“Maybe looks can be deceiving,” I shot back, half teasing, half not.
He gifted me once more with his astounding smile before chuckling, “Maybe. You continue to surprise me, Mac.”
Harley reached across to the coffee table and poured us both a glass of red, handing me mine along with eyes of fire. I almost missed grabbing the glass as I flailed in the two pits of smelted coal.
I burned and drowned in equal measure, a thick cloud of lust forming around us. Perhaps the events of the past twenty-four hours had my need for escape higher than normal. I wanted to forget everything for a while. My fingers wrapped around the delicate glass, but I wasn’t out of his clutches. The pad of his thumb brushed across my knuckles with all the gentleness of butterfly kisses. My hand began to shake and I knew I’d end up spilling the wine over both of us, so I broke our staring contest and gently pulled my hand away, willing my pulse to settle.
Every inhale of charged air had me hyper aware of him. I daren’t look back or my body would sell me out.
I pressed play on the remote, hoping the introductory music might cut through the dense atmosphere. No such luck. His energetic field had already merged with mine, and while we were in the same room together sitting way too close, it ruined me.
I didn’t want to feel anything, but my body had other ideas. I could no more control my raging hormones than I could alter time.
“Angel…”
I stopped him in his tracks by holding up the palm of my hand. “The movie is about to start.”
Did he feel the fireworks too? How could he not? The room had become a swirling vortex of pheromones.
Swigging the entire glass of wine in one go, I welcomed the bitter burn and quickly filled up my glass a second time. All the while, he kept me under heavy scrutiny. Knowing those damn, disarming peepers were trained on me didn’t make things any easier.
Suffice it to say, even though I’d seen the movie before, I barely heard or saw any of it. Instead my mind overthought everything about him. I couldn’t work out why he affected me so.
An hour into it, I chanced a peek at the towering inferno beside me and caught him still staring at me. God. Had he even looked away?
“You’re not watching the movie,” I squeaked.
“It seems familiar. I must have seen it,” he rumbled, imprisoning me in a visual showdown.
“Oh. So you don’t want to watch it again?” The fact that another snippet of his memory peeked through failed to excite me as much as his fiery stare.
“I prefer to watch you.” His tongue swiped his lower lips, whether for my benefit or not, I wasn’t sure.
I choked on a swallow, causing me to cough. Needing to distance myself from Harley before I did something I might regret, I stood and rushed to the bathroom, locking myself in.
Everything within me was on high alert. Giddy with sensation and anticipation, my breathing had turned choppy. Forcing a glance into the mirror, I wasn’t surprised to see a pair of flushed cheeks and dazed eyes.
My willpower had all but crumbled. It hung on by a thread. How would I sleep with him in my room tonight? Ugh. Perhaps I should just let events unfold. Fighting the attraction proved exhausting.
What advice would Char give me? Go for it? Stop betraying Nick? I doubted it would be the latter, knowing her stance on my non-relationship.
Breathing steadily for a minute, I rubbed my face and returned to the living room, stopping short of the couch real quick. No!
Chapter Seventeen
Harley
The thread of restraint I’d been grasping onto had frayed and snapped. She wanted me and I wanted her. A blind man could feel the sexual attraction in the room. I could give her what she needed. The erection I’d been sporting the whole way through the movie hadn’t waned. My balls were hitched up tight and ready to let loose.
Mac had run. Scared. I couldn’t blame her. She didn’t know me. I didn’t know me. But I reacted to her on an intimate level. My angel. My savior. The light to my dark. She fed a part of me I knew held only black. It festered inside. Caustic. Walking in to find her apartment trashed had unlocked a reaction in me that felt like home. A familiarity with my being. The warrior. My soldier status began to feel like more than just a title.
The sudden heat building in the room inspired me to throw my shirt off. The cooler air licked gently over my beading skin, easing the burn only minimally. I needed a cold shower.
Mac appeared without me having to turn to confirm it. I could feel her. My tight muscles contracted further in my back and neck, causing my wound to stretch and burn.
Each second ticked by in excruciating increments, labored breathing the only sounds.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
Attempting to hold back from ravaging you was what I wanted to say, but I didn’t. Instead, I offered a, “It’s hot in here.”
My fingers squeezed and opened on my thighs. I had to put an end to this madness.
Rising, I rounded the corner of the couch to find her wide eyes focused on my chest, mouth agape, legs wobbly. Thankful I wasn’t a waif of a man, I stood tall and proud of my physique, watching her eyes blacken as I approached and stopped in her personal space.
“Stop.” She attempted to iron out her guilt but failed.
“I don’t want to stop. I’ve been pulling myself back all evening. I can’t do it anymore. Just one touch, Angel. Just one kiss. Let me taste you.”
Whimpering and backing away did her no good becau
se she only served to reach a dead end. The wall hugged her back while I guarded her front. Towering over her, a protective instinct leapt forth, causing me to cocoon her in with both my arms bracketing her head.
“I…uh…Nick. He’s my boyfriend.” She could tell herself that all she wanted, but I knew better.
“He’s not your boyfriend, Angel. He’s your housemate. That’s all. Someone to share the bills, but not your bed or your heart. You’re so damn lonely. Let me fill the hole. Christ! Do you know how good we could be? You’re so eager and yet so righteous. Stop denying your body what it wants. What it needs.”
I still wasn’t touching her but I may as well have been. She scorched me like fire and brimstone. I could see the drumming pulse in her neck. The heavy swell of her chest caused by thick breathing.
“I can’t.” She still hadn’t looked at me. Stubborn woman.
“One kiss. That’s all. Nothing more.”
I wanted so much more, but I wasn’t about to force her.
With painstaking slowness, her chin lifted and her eyes hooked onto mine. She had me in a second. Totally. She showed me everything I needed to see and more. I pounced, primed and ready.
Keeping my hands free, my lips were the only things to dive in. We were physically joined by mouth only, and yet she filled the gaps. Around me. In me. With a desperate groan I ransacked her mouth and she let me, giving herself over to what we both couldn’t deny. Heaven came to greet me as she opened up like a spring bud touched by the morning’s first rays of sunshine.
A long, satisfied whine rattled from her throat into my mouth, where I swallowed it eagerly. My angel had wings and she flew me to the stars. Kissing soon wasn’t enough. I needed more. Much more. My earlier promise disintegrated into thin air. No longer could I keep my hands away.
Pressing my chest into hers, feeling the hard pellets of her nipples dig into my pecs, I let my hands roam free. One shifted down her back to the ass I had been dreaming about, awake and asleep. Nothing in my head could compare to the real thing. Two perfect globes, perky as if just hand-picked from a peach tree.
The Lost and Found Series Page 10